"It would be highly ungrateful to doubt your "Lordship's and Lady Grey's good wishes to me upon "this greatest event of my life; and must I not wish "to extend that kind prejudice to one upon whom "all my happiness in future is to depend? 66 My dearest Lord, and ever honoured Madam, "believe me, you will find her worthy of your fa"vours. The perfection of good sense, the gentlest "of all tempers, a taste for what is really excellent, "and a manner totally free from affectation, are "what I shall present, when you allow me to intro"duce Mrs. WRAY. "You will conclude, that upon this day nothing "sublunary can have place in my thoughts. Ne"vertheless the King's and your Lordship's Exche"quer will not be forgotten. Those cares, not " even in my departure out of the single state, Non ipsâ in morte relinquunt. "and I have time for telling you that your last quar"ter's accompt was &c. &c. pounds, "With gratitude and respect, "My dear Lord, "Your ever devoted servant, "D. WRAY." There is no date of month or year. He was too much flurried for such minutiæ; but subsequent Letters mark them both.-August 1758. I am afraid of my own egotism. It is the first cousin of garrulity, and a kind of spoon-meat for old age. But, if I am not much deceived by the Ipse dixitism of grey hairs, and of a beard so white, the Reader's taste will agree with mine; and then I shall say with Horace, "Et sapit, et mecum facit," if I recommend the Letter just copied for its pleasant vein, for its judicious gallantry, and above all, for for the admirable portrait of his wife;-not forgetting the enthusiasm of his gratitude. In reading these Letters, that virtue of gratitude, so thoroughly out of date in these times that it may be called old style, enchants me the most; and if these memoirs only furnished the history of such an attachment, as a mutual and perfect esteem formed and cemented between Lord Hardwicke and his friend, I should hope they will not be found uninteresting. The next Letter is not inferior to this, in pleasantry of temper, and goodness of heart. But it furnishes an amusing feature of Lord Hardwicke's wish to monopolize his Deputy, and of his fear that marriage will seduce him. The answer is full of spirit, and of those admirable affections which endeared him to his friends. (Copy.) "MY DEAR LORD, Tuesday, Sept. 5, 1758. "A thousand thanks to your Lordship and Lady "Marchioness, for your good wishes, and for your "kind thoughts of Mrs. WRAY and me. Can you "make it a disputable question whether I purpose to "visit Wrest this year? I never can suffer any such "precedent against my established claim to that ho 66 nour; nor can I be now content, without commu"nicating this privilege to one who will not be less gratefully sensible of those pleasures, which that "charming place affords. "Our dinners and visits d'étiquette are in a manner "closed, and the care of settling in our London house, "which has just received us, can be suspended. "If, therefore, your Lordship will notify to me " in a line, when that suit and service can best fall "in with your designs for the Autumn, if any part "of it can be said (even by hope) to remain, we shall obey the summons with all the alacrity and readi"ness, which a man, his wife, and a carriage, can "afford. I must allow that a servant and cloak-bag "were sooner packed up. "There was not the least occasion for your Lordship to think of any addition to the nuptial festi"vities. You have more substantially obliged us. "Without your friendship, we should not have "entered into this union, which both of us think, "and shall, I dare say, continue to think, a happy 66 one. "Under any other circumstances, it would have "been imprudent, indeed impracticable *. "But you will accuse me of gloominess and gravity. Indeed, my dear Lord, I am not melancholy. I am serious; but think I am not the 66 worse company for it. 6 "As to your other objection, that I am not "enough my own man,' I put in a two-fold plea. "Confessing myself too much engaged of late, "because in this great affair I had neither deputy, "nor assistant; and alledging Dr. Heberden's au"thority for my dégagement, who will take no "denial, when the household has been settled"I must write a book, and wish you had such a lei"sure from your military cares I think you would compound with my Doctor for another Historicopolitical preface, but seriously from an officious paragrapli, setting forth in high colours the ala"crity of your provincials, in taking commissions; I half concluded that you had found them rather 66 66 66 * This passage makes one smile at the cura pecult, which had formed at least the habit, if not prominent foible of his mind and spirit; for he certainly could have married with no imprudence, if he had not been Deputy Teller of the Exchequer. "backward. "backward. I began to imagine that your next "meeting would shut the Temple of Janus. 66 "You know my pacific spirit; and I wish that some new Augustus would for ever build up against "the gates of those edifices all over the world. 66 "Nor am I less warranted in a wish of this kind by our late successes. Our Governors will, I hope, make the only good use of them; for all the "tocsin of Take and hold,' by the infailible politi"cians of Guildhall. "To obviate an alarming prejudice, which your "Lordship took up rather too lightly, as if I were "out with all the Wits, I must inform you, that, "besides many visits from that quarter, I have re"ceived elegant gratulations from Soame Jenyns "and Sam Richardson, two authors, how excellent! "and in how different a manner! and a very spruce "imitation of Horace on my wedding day, by an "old member of Bene't College. "Your Lordship's devoted, (These are Extracts.) "9 Aug. 1757.-Great Queen-street. "Many posts ago should I, in all gratitude, have " acknowledged your Lordship's last favour at "Wrest but I should scarce have the heart, even "at this late hour, to write, if the other province "of your Deputy did not require it-so full have I "been since my arrival here of Exchequer ideas, " and those not the most agreeable. "The mistaken account of the Fees which the "Marine Society have published, could not but "waken the resentment; and vengeance of the po"lite Satyrist, who conveys his belles moralités through the channel of The London Evening."Accordingly, he bestowed upon the Officers of the Exchequer some of those names by which he has "called "called the best and greatest men for the last twenty "or thirty years. "Lord Lincoln, reasonably offended by such "treatment, especially where he, as well as your Lordship, had been remarkably generous, thought 66 66 proper to remonstrate, in a direct appeal to the "Board of Treasury, on the subject of the Letter "from thence to us-recommending that we should "claim no fees upon that order. - Mr. West, who "had written the Letter, allowed the justice of the "appellant's resentment, undertook to withdraw "the Letter, and promised that he would be cau"tious in future. This was deemed the best that "could be done: for, if that Letter had produced "its effect, the London Evening hero would have triumphed in the power of his eloquence over the "Publicans.- Such is our précis of this eventful history. It would be tedious to write, and worse "to read, all the little particulars; nor had I in"tended writing at all upon the subject, reserving "it for our conversations in the garden, or the library. 66 66 66 66 "But alas! another Treasury business, for it certainly is Extra-Scaccarial, lays violent hands upon "me, and will fix me here for the whole of this "month, this pleasant month, during the adjourn"ment of the Board of Treasury, our only vacation. 66 My comfort is, that I enjoy the coolest situation, "and the possibility of a little breath in Richmond "air on Sundays. "On Thursday, at one o'clock, just as the Board "were breaking up, they sent for the Deputy-Audi"tor and the Tellers. It was to command that we "should dispose of the undrawn tickets (more than "two thirds of the whole number.) "We of course made our excuses- we deprecated such an ample trust. His Grace kindly replied, "that we who were known officers of the publick "merited their confidence; and so they dismissed |